Tying together the old and new with exposed shiplap

As we have torn into walls in the existing house, we have discovered much about the building practices of the 1930s.  It's truly wonderful really.  

When we first looked at the property, I took note that I could not see any evidence of termite damage (odd for a house of any age in this part of the country).  The first time we cut into an existing wall, I figured out why.  I have always loved the smell of cut lumber—it reminds me of my dad working in the garage nearly every weekend I can remember.  I especially love the smell of cut cedar, and that is exactly what I smelled when we cut into one of our walls.  Not only is every wall lined with 1 inch thick shiplap, but every stud and every wall board is cedar—no wonder the termites aren’t interested.

Guide to types of siding.  See shiplap in the middle.

The fact that every wall has 1” shiplap on each side is great when you want to hang something heavy (no more searching for a stud).  (If you aren’t familiar with “shiplap”, it refers to the charming wood planked walls that are so popular, and all over Pinterest, right now.)  It really evokes the classic farmhouse feel—once you peel off the two layers of paneling, three layers of wallpaper and a layer of flour sack fabric. 

The famous ” Feed sack dress” – 1940s ration fashion.
Not just for dresses

That’s right—flour/feed sacks lined my walls.  I suppose this was their method of insulation.  The fabric was nailed to the walls and wall paper was layered over that.  What a great way to use something more than once!  My grandmother and great grandmother made quilts, dresses, kitchen linens and so much more with feed sacks.  Why not line your walls with it?...

As soon as I discovered the shiplap, I knew I wanted to expose at least some of it and decided the best spot would be the kitchen wall where I want to put open shelving for dishes and dry goods.  It was a very dusty process, but I got the wall cleaned off, nails, tacks and staples removed, seams caulked and boards primed, and now I have a perfectly farmhouse-y background in my kitchen.  (It does, however, still need a few coats of paint before shelves go up.  I’m waiting for counters to be completed before I do that.)

Exposed shiplap after most of the wall paper came down.

Existing exposed shiplap was caulked primed and painted.
We will add exposed shelving after the counters are installed.

We will open up the space between the existing house and the addition soon, and I really feel like we need to do something to tie the two spaces together.  When I discovered that the local lumber yard carries the same size shiplap as they used on my house nearly 80 years ago, I decided that an exposed shiplap wall in the new dining room was the way to go.

I priced shiplap at the local lumber yard as well as McCoy’s and Sutherlands in the nearby town.  I even discovered that Home Depot carries it.  Wait!  Not true.  They list it on their website but do not stock it anywhere I could find within 150 miles.  It turns out that my local lumber yard, which closes every weekday at 5:00, noon on Saturdays and is closed on Sunday, must be more suited to older homes as they carry shiplap in a variety of lengths and have the best prices and great service.

At our local lumber yard.  They load it all on the truck for you.

My husband and I showed up at the lumber yard one Saturday morning with Grandpa’s big ranch truck (a King Ranch edition F350 that I sort of have a crush on), placed our order and got loaded down with boards for my dining room wall.  (Actually, it wasn’t loaded down at all—not like our F150 would have been.  I’m thoroughly impressed with the load capacity of this truck—hence, the crush I have on it.)

From there, my husband installed my wall, sometimes using rather comical methods.  Since wood is natural and there are no straight lines in nature, not every board slid right into place.  Many needed some coaxing, coercing or just plain man-handling to get into place.  It is now completed and also ready for paint.  I absolutely love the look of it and can’t wait to see what it all looks like once everything is completed.

They even let me be really picky about which boards I want to keep and the ones I don't like.  Here, my husband is checking to see how straight the boards are.

Not all the boards were perfectly straight--some required some flexibility and brute force to get them into place properly.